Tyranny of the Duke of Alva

Image 1

Name: The Tyranny of the Duke of Alva
Author: unknown
Date: 1569
Medium: Engraving
Size: 22.5 × 28.5 cm
Location: Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands
Copyright: Public Domain
Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.443822
Description: The Duke of Alva is seated on his throne with Granvelle (with bellows) and the devil at his side; to the right of his throne are members of the Blood Council. In front of Alva, the 17 personifications of the provinces of the Netherlands are seated kneeled and chained; at the far right the dead members of the States-General are depicted. Above, a cardinal fishes for riches in a blood pond. Behind them, there is a depiction of the decapitation of Egmond, Horne and others in Brussels in 1568. In the background there are scenes of torture and executions. 

Image 2

Name: The Tyranny of the Duke of Alva
Author: Willem Jacobsz. Delff (attributed to)
Publisher: Jan Pietersz. van de Venne 
Date: 1622
Medium: Engraving
Size: 41.6 × 58.0 cm
Location: Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands
Copyright: Public Domain
Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.444727
Description: The depiction is similar to the original of 1569, but here the bishop fishing for riches in the blood pond is replaced by Margareta of Parma. 

Image 3

Name: The Tyranny of the Duke of Alva
Author: unknown
Date: c. 1622-1630
Medium: Oil on Panel
Size: 76 × 117 cm
Location: Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands
Copyright: Public Domain
Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.11950
Description: This painting is based on the Delff version. The part of the depiction with the Duke of Alva sitting on his throne is missing.

For more on the image, see James Tanis and Daniel Horst, Images of Discord: a Graphic Interpretation of the Opening Decades of the Eighty Years' War (Bryn Mawr, 1993), and A.C. Sawyer, ‘The Tyranny of Alva: The Creation and Development of a Dutch Patriotic Image’, De zeventiende eeuw 19 (2003), 186–203.